In order to finish the biology requirements at my high school I must do a project on the ethology (behavior) of an animal species. Since
I have always been fascinated by Damselfish and how they react with intruders, how they guard their eggs, how they farm their gardens, etc I've chosen to do my project on "Damselfish habitating the Bonaire coast". The problem is we (my family) have just this week purchased an UW camera, thus we don't have any UW pictures (at all!). Our next Bonaire trip will be next summer; alas too late for my project that needs to be finished shortly. I would be most thankful if any BT ers with pictures (that I could use) would help me out. I will in the text to my report give credit to whoever sends pictures. Even pictures identifying the different types of Damsels would be appreciated.
Thanks, David Farrell

Here's a couple.

Three Spotted Damselfish

Sargent Majors
This one they were guarding their nest right in the center of the shot (it's from Florida but I wouldn't say anything).

Here's a link to another Sgt. Major Damselfish. The purple egg mass is the closely guarded nest.

http://dive.scubadiving.com/members/memberimages/14646_5590_4.jpg

yellowtail damselfish (morocota)

(Message edited by muddysoapfish on September 21, 2006)

Here is a link with about 700 pic's.
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?ei=UTF-8&p=Damselfish&fr=sfp&b=1

Carter, I think (key word is think) we have a damsel fish attacking my wife's underwater lens from our April trip this year!! She has large wide angle lens that they se their reflection in and then try to scare/attack it away. Really quite humorous to observe. I know we also have a lot of pics with Sergeant Majors guarding their eggs in mooring blocks from this April. Would you be interested in these pics and when do you need them??

Let us know and we will try to help you out. If you are interested send me an e-mail and we will scan them and send them to you. I believe my e-mail address is in my profile.

Good luck.

Thanks for all the help so far. It's greatly appreciated. Dave that sounds like a great picture. Please keep the pictures coming, especially the one's showing behavior.
My Email is david@freebsd.se
thanks again, David (Carter's son)

Here's a three spot damsel fish that kept attacking my camera.

Here is a link to "Charlotte", the damselfish that used to make a regular appearance when the cams were at small wall and a little write up about damselfish from the Critter Gallery.
Charlotte, damselfish

Carter, here is one from my last trip. He is a sargent major, his eggs are in the tube. I've got some more pics, but they are on a disc at work, where you can clearly see the purple eggs. I'll try to find them on Monday.

found one here. the purple patch are the eggs, and the 2 damsels are guarding them.

Dave, if you find the picture of the damsel fish atttacking the lens, please share, I'd really like to see that ! Sounds cute !

Photo by Ken Abruzzo 2001

(Message edited by scubahb on September 25, 2006)

I just wanted to thank all my BT friends for the way you have extended yourselves. Some of you have even gathered research articles for me while others have sent great pictures. Bonaire is becoming a part of my family's life and certainly all of you are part of the reason this is so. I don't think that Bonaire would be what it is today without the Bonaire diving community being what it is. If any of you plan to visit Bonaire this coming July please let us know. We will be at Don's as usual and would like to thank you personally.
Best regards to all of you
David (and Carter)